2018 marked a sweeping year of change and awareness for women across the spectrum, including Muslim women.

Building on the momentum established by the #MeToo movement, the founder of the #MosqueMeToo movement, Mona Eltahawy, has sought to bring similar societal awareness to Muslim women within the Muslim community and empower Muslim women to have a more proactive role in their communities. Despite difficulties, the importance of such a cause is undeniable.

What #MosqueMeToo Is All About

Women have often remained voiceless on issues regarding sexual harassment and assault. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) survey conducted in 2015, 75% of the world’s roughly two billion women 18 years or older have experienced sexual harassment. Furthermore, analysis of the data concludes over 80% of the adult female population in Muslim-majority countries, such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, have been negatively impacted. Granted, these statistics can vary depending on one’s definition as to what constitutes sexual harassment, but these facts still paint a daunting picture of a serious problem in society regarding the basic human right to feel safe.

However, hash-tag movements and the social synergy that is created by them can strengthen voices so that they are heard. A revolutionary movement, called #MeToo, started in 2007 and was revived in October 2017 on social media outlets, such as Twitter and Facebook, to expose sexual assault incidents and provide a sense of unity for survivors. Inspired by the momentum created by #MeToo on social media, Egyptian-American writer, activist and journalist, Mona Eltahawy, began the #MosqueMeToo movement to give an active voice to women who experienced sexual violence in the Muslim community and have long been silenced in male-dominated cultures.

A focus of the movement is exposing sexual violence at sacred places, such as during the Hajj. Although Saudi Arabia’s Council recently passed an anti-harassment law that punishes offenders and protects victims’ dignity as insured by Islamic law abuse continues to occur in the Gulf country because of underlying gender inequalities says Eltahawy. Consequently, giving Muslim women a greater voice in their community will allow them as caretakers of children, to empower their daughters and instill parity of women in their sons, to incrementally move the needle with each generation, so that men no longer see women as inferior.

The Hajj is a particular place of tension for Muslim women who report instances of sexual abuse by men during the annual spiritual pilgrimage.

As discussed, sexual violence in the sacred places of the Muslim community, especially during the Hajj, is not an anomaly. The spark that ignited the #MosqueMeToo movement began in February 2018 by Eltahawy when she tweeted her experience during the Hajj after being inspired by a harrowing Facebook post by a Pakistani woman, Sabica Khan, who shared her own incident. Eltahawy wanted to distinguish the #MosqueMeToo movement from #MeToo to ensure it “breaks the race, class, gender and faith lines that make it so hard for marginalized people to be heard.”

With increased globalization, transportation technology, and the Internet, the world’s interconnectedness is unparalleled—social media platforms are giving women a voice that we may not have arguably heard before. Eltahawy noted that her Twitter thread was liked or retweeted “thousands of times” and shared in a variety of languages, such as Arabic, Spanish, and German. The synergy that has been created from the #MeToo and #ChurchToo (which exposes sexual abuse and harassment in Christian religious sites) movements are highlighting that the experiences felt by women in the Muslim community are not anomalous, but are shared across the religious and culture spectra.

Eltahawy has expressed numerous goals. Above all, she hopes for positive outcomes for the basic treatment of women. Her objectives include: men having conversations with each other and their families about sexualized violence, holy sites giving sermons and launching campaigns reminding Muslims that "Islam demands the respect of women,” insisting authorities and police need to be trained on how to discern and handle assaults, and calling for more female personnel at the holy sites. She fearlessly requested that the Grand Mosque Imam to address the safety of female Muslims during the Hajj. Inspiring her supporters to continue the movement, Eltahawy has exhorted them: “don’t let it die on social media unless it dies in the society.”

The significance of the #MosqueMeToo movement is multifaceted. Supporters seek to use the movement to empower those most vulnerable: Muslim women, who have been taken advantage of primarily by men and religious figures. By establishing a network seeking to challenge the societal norms Muslim women are joining the movement to challenge the accountability of the crimes because they refuse to simply be victimized, especially in sacred places.

The Quran and Other Concerns with #MosqueMeToo

However, the movement has faced its hurdles. Eltahawy’s insinuation that the Quran is irrelevant in addressing how women should pray is a highly inflammatory statement to many Muslims. There seems to be a division in the movement between the emphasis on a literal adherence to the Quran, versus a less rigid interpretational frame. Amina Wadud, an international Quranic scholar and mentor to Eltahawy, emphasizes the importance of reinterpreting the Quran so that the Muslim community can cultivate more liberating, inclusive, equitable laws.

There are also Muslims who feel that this movement will only amplify Islamophobia and substantiate their false arguments that portray Muslim men as evil. Some Muslim women fear that exposing the Muslim community’s “skeleton in the closet” will enable society to further blame Muslims (“#MosqueMeToo”). When women do speak up, both in society and on social media, they are told that they have an overactive imagination, it is their fault, they want to destroy Islam, they are too ugly to be assaulted, etcetera (“#MosqueMeToo”). However, due to the supporters’ determination to include men as a solution to the problem in the movement these inquiries may avoid that slippery slope. Activists are using the #MosqueMeToo movement to promote that sexualized violence is not just a “woman’s issue.” They are expressing this by advocating for candid discussion among men within the community to help break the connotation that it occurs without retribution.

Where to from here for #MosqueMeToo?

The #MosqueMeToo movement has enabled Muslim women to be heard regarding the sexualized violence that they have endured in both the religious and secular aspects of their lives. Significantly, the movement is endeavoring to end the gagging and shaming of Muslims within the community who have experienced this abuse by encouraging individuals to continue to share their stories, the religious leaders to denounce such acts, and highlight the importance of men taking greater responsibility on this issue.

For this aspirational movement to have a lasting impact on the Muslim community, it needs to leverage social media and broaden its message to a wider audience to public policy makers and the judicial system—lest the movement operate in a vacuum and run out of oxygen causing it to be short lived and ineffective.

*This is a guest post from MaryAnne O'Neill and was originally written as an essay in an "Introductoin to Islam" course at the University of Florida in Summer 2018.

That was the warning I gave to 75 students who signed up for the University of Florida's first ever online "Introduction to Islam" course (in conjunction with the Department of Religion, the Center for Global Islamic Studies, the Center for Instructional Technology and Training [CITT], and UF Online).

For those who remained, they soon found out what it was like to learn the basics of Islamic belief and practices through an examination of Islamic history, law, and an array of theological orientations as articulated in the traditions of teachings of various traditions in just six weeks!

As they reflected at the end of the course, they not only confirmed the intensity of the course but its value in challenging their stereotypes and enabling them to talk to others about the diversity of Islam and Muslim communities across the globe.

The course also took time to explore Islamic practices in the contemporary period and expose students to reflect on the realities of religious everyday life and religious change through their readings, lectures, discussion boards, essays, and final class project -- an op-ed, commentary, or news analysis piece that they developed over the course of the semester. Not only did the students learn through this process, but I also gained new perspectives and lessons through the online teaching experience.

As I walked to work this morning I listened to the news and heard three references to the place of Islam and Muslims in various contexts: about whether Islam is a part of Germany amidst their current asylum discussions; the SCOTUS decision on the "Muslim ban" in the U.S.; and the role of Islam in the peace process between Palestine and Israel. The news only impressed upon me the importance of giving students the ability to critically analyze the impacts of Islamic beliefs and values on social and cultural practices, and the formation of institutions, communities, and identities. Furthermore, I hoped to challenge students to grasp the complex relationship between the discursive traditions of a major world religion as well as the ambiguities of some key terms of Muslim religious thinking.

We were aware that this summer course could not amply cover the full extent of Muslim traditions across the ages and around the globe, but the expectation was that students would come away with a fuller appreciation for the richness and variety of Islam while also possessing a foundational understanding of its core concepts and practices.

On their final exam, I asked them to write regarding, "one thing you would like to tell someone about Islam and Muslims that you did not know before this course and you think is important for others to know." Overwhelmingly, students highlighted their learning about the diversity of Islam.

One student wrote:

I was led to believe that Islam was one monolithic religion and everyone followed it as is, save for the extremists. However, after learning more about the faith and its history over the last few centuries, I realize that Islam can manifest in different ways among various cultures, and that while set apart from other forms of Islam, the same core tenets remain. There are Muslims who visit shrines of saints, who use talismans with Quranic verses on them, and who push for either reform and/or maintaining current tradition as is. It goes to show [that] Muslims worldwide are an international community that cannot be defined in just one, overly general way.

Another student learned about the various motivations that Muslim women have for choosing to veil in public. They wrote, "I think it is important for others to know this because the stereotypes of an oppressive Islam cause people to dislike Islam and cause them to create a largely negative image of Islam...I think if people knew the reasons that Muslim women chose to veil and how these women felt about it, some of this negativity surrounding Islam would disappear. I think it is important for people to be knowledgeable of ["women in Islam"] because it helps them create their own opinions of Islam based off of more than what they hear in the news."

There was some humor as well as one student quipped, "if you thought the name Muhammad was not popular before, think again!"

Lightness aside, other students discussed how their stereotypes about women in Islam, violence and jihad, and the modernization and Westernization of Islam were flipped on their heads or given new context and meaning. Overwhelmingly, students identified 9/11 as the key prism through which they had previously known Islam and Muslims and also set it aside as the centrifugal moment in contemporary global history. They recognized that the way the world sees Islam and Muslims -- while certainly influenced by historical perspectives and stereotypes -- is largely shaped by 9/11 and the subsequent "War on Terror." Not only that, but students appreciated how the media, government policies, and cultural tropes have seriously warped our understanding of what Islam is and is not and how Muslims live, act, and think across the globe.

Reflecting on the current cultural and political climate one student said, "we shouldn’t treat Muslims as foreigners or people following an evil, alien culture. They aren’t so different from the average person you might meet on the street."

These gleanings were also reflected in their final projects. Students shared their opinions and analyses on a variety of topics including the #MosqueMeToo movement, Islam and Muslim communities in Africa, and the parallels and dissimilarities between Zen Buddhist traditions and Sufi mystic beliefs and practices. We took the semester to help students develop their project from idea to thesis, outline to draft, and draft to final copy and were rewarded with fine-tuned arguments, clear perspectives, and in-depth analyses.

In the coming weeks, I hope to publish a couple of these pieces and to share with you some of the things that students passed on to me. These projects reflect the ongoing need for individuals, teachers, and students in educational institutions and in the public sphere to commit themselves to learning about religion -- Islam or otherwise. These projects also reflect how even in the course of six weeks a student's understanding of the world can not only change but come to be expressed eloquently and shared widely with others.

Indeed, in a time of increasingly negative rhetoric around the topic of Islam and Muslims, it is heartening to know that education -- whether in-person, experiential, or via online portals -- can help counter stereotypes and reverse negative opinions.

My experience with this course reinforces something I recently read in the article, “Muslims Love Jesus, Too? Corrective Information Alters Prejudices Against Islam.” In this article, researchers in Germany found that "opinions towards Islam were largely negative at baseline but improved significantly after [the] presentation of the correct answers." Furthermore, they wrote that this "suggests that prejudices against Islam are partially fueled by knowledge gaps."

As a lifelong learner and educator, it is my passion to fill knowledge gaps -- those of my own and those of others. It was an honor to work with these students over the last month-and-a-half to fill gaps and enhance their knowledge about Islam and Muslims across the globe. I learned a lot as well and benefitted from their messages, corrections, challenges, questions, and one-on-one conversations about their projects, their struggles, and their inquiries.

Educators concerned with religious literacy should take heart that their instruction can, and does, work. It can have a positive impact. It can -- in small and large ways -- change the world.

Systems are unjust, broader forces may be malevolent, and the world may be chaotic; but teaching others, filling knowledge gaps, and engaging in important conversations about Islam and Muslims can play a crucial role in bringing justice, goodness, and kindness to bear in our world.

At least that's what I learned this summer teaching "Introduction to Islam" online.

Letters distributed to homes, lawmakers, and businesses around London back in March encouraged individuals to “take action” against Muslims who have “made your loved ones suffer.” It offered a points-based system advocating for hurling verbal abuse, bombing or burning a mosque, or throwing acid in the face of a Muslim. The date was set for April 3.

The Washington Post reported, “As April 3 approached, many took to social media to share their thoughts on the hate campaign. Some posts urged British Muslims to take care and look out for one another. Others were determined that the letters would not cause them to change their daily habits.”

Others responded on social media with counter-campaigns such as #PublishAMuslimDay or #LoveAMuslimDay. The counter-campaigns won the day, but the uncomfortable questions still remain:

How could such an advertisement not cause more general concern and outrage?

What kind of philosophies, postures, and politics lie behind such blatant and brutal hate?

Why would someone go to the trouble to print and distribute such a disturbing piece of mail in the first place?

Islamophobia — the ignorant fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims, often leading to anti-Muslim rhetoric and possibly anti-Muslim actions — is the root cause of such flagrant hate and viscous verbosity.

By definition, Islamophobia is fueled by ignorance and misunderstanding of Islam and Muslim communities. It’s also fueled by “Orientalism” — the representation of Asia, especially the Middle East, in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude. These attitudes help fan the flames of anti-Muslim rhetoric, Eurocentrism, and racism in the U.S. and abroad.

If you know me, a lot of my efforts and work are aimed at combatting Islamophobia and Orientalist imaginings of Islam and Muslim communities. It’s in that spirit that I have helped develop an online “Introduction to Islam” course for the University of Florida. It’s the first of its kind.

The course provides an overview of basic Islamic beliefs and practices through an examination of Islamic history, law, and an array of theological orientations as articulated in the traditions of teachings of various traditions. The course also examines Islamic practices in the contemporary period and thereby exposes students to reflect on the realities of religious everyday life and religious change. The course aims to give the students the ability to critically analyze the impacts of Islamic beliefs and values on social and cultural practices, and the formation of institutions, communities, and identities. The course also aims to challenge students to grasp the complex relationship between the discursive traditions of a major world religion as well as the ambiguities of some key terms of Muslim religious thinking.

This course will lead students into an exploration of the basic history, contemporary expressions, concepts and phenomena, beliefs and rituals, communities and common experiences of Muslims across the globe. While such a course cannot amply cover the full extent of Muslim traditions across the ages and around the globe the expectation is that students engaged with this course will come away with a fuller appreciation for the richness and variety of Islam while also possessing a foundational understanding of its core concepts and practices.

As an academic study of the Islamic Tradition and the civilization(s) that it evolved this course is not one of Islamic theology per se (a religiously committed intellectual discipline). Instead, this is an academic investigation of this great religion, which will use an intellectually rigorous and critical lens that draws on history, sociology, anthropology and critical hermeneutics in our study. For those looking for a theology course that sets out to show that one religious tradition is superior to the others or has “the truth," this is not the class that you want. Also for those wanting to demonize the tradition, you too will find yourself challenged and confronted. This course aims to present a critical, but balanced, picture of Islam and Muslims across time and in the world today.

If you are interested in taking this course as a UF student or want to learn more, take a look at the course syllabus or click HERE to find more information about registering for the course.

There is the mother who converted when she saw her son transition from a life of drugs and crime to one of prayer and faithful religious practice. Then there's the story of the guy who met the woman of his dreams, moved to Kenya to pursue her, and converted in order to become her husband. Or there is the Marine who took the shahadah while stationed in Japan. There are former Pentecostals and Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and agnostics, atheists and Mormons; they've all converted to Islam. They are from Puerto Rico and Mexico, Argentina and Ecuador, San Franciso and San Salvador, New York, Newark, Miami, and Houston.

They are Latinx Muslims, one of the fastest growing religious communities in the U.S.

At the end of my thesis, I wrote there was still a pertinent need to expand research in this area and in the quest for quality, comprehensive, newswriting and coverage, that students and commentators should provide more nuanced information about this important religious community. Over the last several years I have seen an increasing amount of new research, publications, and writing on the subject. It's an exciting time to be in the field.

Just this year, five major publications have come out -- or are on their way -- that will help scholars and a wider public better understand the why, what, when, where, and how of Latinx conversion to Islam and how Latinx Muslims are shaping the American religious scene and impacting the broader Muslim world. Below I provide a brief overview, review, and comment on each of them before concluding with some ideas for the future, and some suggestions for how these might spur further research and consideration of Latinx Muslims in the U.S. and beyond:

I start with this text because it is both highly valuable and for me,it is highly personal. Since I first met Isa Parada at a masjid in Houston, TX and began learning from my Latinx Muslim teachers and friends I have remained humbly fascinated with Latinx Muslim journeys through the uncertainties of being "quadruple minorities" -- Latinx in the Muslim community, Muslim in the Latinx community, Latinx in the U.S., and Muslim in the U.S.

This text, which I turned to in its draft form as a website and blog during my master's research, not only presents general comments on the place of Latinx Muslims in the American Muslim story, but it also does the simple, but significant, service of presenting scores of stories from Latinx Muslims themselves. Readers listen to men and women from across the Americas who identify as Latina, Latino, Latinx, Hispanic, or Spanish-speaking tell their stories of reversion (or 'conversion,' Latinx Muslims refer to their conversions as 'reversions,' both because they believe in fitra -- that human beings are born with an innate inclination toward tawhid [the oneness of God] and draw on their Andalusian roots to speak to the very Arab and Muslim basis of much of Latinx culture, language, and history).

Readers will enjoy how Galvan frames these narratives with his own historical, theological, and cultural commentary, but will be most impressed by the sheer diversity of stories and experiences of those who converted in prison or on their front porch, to those who reverted in Australia and Bolivia, and those who found Islam on Facebook, through Latinx specific organizations, their future spouses, in dreams, or even while smoking weed and drinking a 22oz. of Heineken. Not only does this text do well to let the stories stand for themselves and permit Latinx Muslims' voices to be heard above all else, but it also provides a wealth of primary data for researchers and interested students looking to learn more.

2. American Prisons: A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion to Islam by SpearIt

Against, and alongside, what he posits as a poisonous prison system he showcases the spiritual journeys of many Muslims who convert while incarcerated. Significantly, he includes an exploration and analysis of Latinx Muslims -- their conversions, their communities, and their central importance in telling the story of Islam in the U.S.

One of the more significant voices in my research has been "Imam Danny." He is a scholar, an inter-religious leader, and a friend. His tireless efforts at understanding, communicating, and sharing Islamic theology are well appreciated by many Muslims -- Latinx and otherwise.

His most recent project is a labor of love that also opens up a window into the influence of Latinx Muslims in the process of Islamic theology in the U.S. and abroad. Not only have Latinx Muslims been producing works, and translating works into, Spanish over the last 40 years, they have also been creating new works in English. Imam Hernandez's efforts at translating and collecting 42 hadith, reports of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other early Muslims, on the five pillars of Islamic practice (confessing the faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and the hajj pilgrimage) are quick, practical, references for intentional Muslims. More than that, they are another prime example of indigenous knowledge production and leadership among Latinx Muslims who are making an impact on their religion in the U.S. and abroad. It is evidence that Latinx Muslims are not only being shaped by the global umma (Muslim community) but also shaping it with their words and deeds.

4. "Latino Muslims in the United States Reversion, Politics, and Islamidad," Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion by Gaston Espinosa, Juan Galvan, and Harold Morales

This journal article lauds itself as the first large-scale survey research on the demographics of the Latinx Muslim community and the question of why Latina/os converted to Islam. There has been important research conducted in this area, but as they note it has largely been limited to smaller numbers in particular cities and without any consistent methodology. As they wrote, "This study seeks to help fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the survey results of 560 Latino Muslims across the U.S."

What they provide is the most comprehensive picture of the general make-up and sociological contours of the Latinx Muslim community in the U.S. They also make a critical interlude by discussing the idea of "Islamidad" -- a distinct Latinx Muslim identity that resists complete assimilation to Arab cultural norms even as it reimagines and expands what it means to be Latinx and Muslim.

5. Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority by Harold Morales

This book, which comes out in April, is a highly anticipated and pioneering monograph that, "examines how so-called 'minority groups' are made, fragmented, and struggle for recognition in the U.S.A." To do so, it focuses on the story of, "Latino Muslims [who] celebrate their intersecting identities both in their daily lives and in their mediated representations online."

While I have yet to get my hands on this book, the publisher's description gives us an overview:

In this book, Harold Morales follows the lives of several Latino Muslim leaders from the 1970’s to the present, and their efforts to organize and unify nationally in order to solidify the new identity group’s place within the public sphere. Based on four years of ethnography, media analysis and historical research, Morales demonstrates how the phenomenon of Latinos converting to Islam emerges from distinctive immigration patterns and laws, urban spaces, and new media technologies that have increasingly brought Latinos and Muslims in to contact with one another. He explains this growing community as part of the mass exodus out of the Catholic Church, the digitization of religion, and the growth of Islam. Latino and Muslim in America explores the racialization of religion, the framing of religious conversion experiences, the dissemination of post-colonial histories, and the development of Latino Muslim networks, to show that the categories of race, religion, and media are becoming inextricably entwined.

As is evident from the above, research from, and on, Latinx Muslims is on the rise. The above provides valuable fodder and necessary provocation for further research and understanding by broader Muslim, American, and Latinx populations. Reflection, writing, and research is getting deeper and wider and that’s a good thing.

Of course, to be more cognizant, and fine-tuned, in researching Latinx Muslims, researchers have to ask the right questions in a community that is still growing, emerging, and solidifying itself. Future research must be deeper and broader still, more thoroughly theoretical in its approach, and perhaps focused on some of the following suggested areas for further research:

more understanding of, and from, Latinx Muslim women who provide a rich, unique, and gendered place and perspective within a community where they are the majority;

investigations of specific Latinx influence on Islamic doctrine and Muslim practice in the U.S. and abroad;

further exploration of the accents and considerable transnational lives of Latinx Muslims. I am aiming to provide more on this in my own dissertation research with Puerto Rican Muslims and in my forthcoming book from Hurst Publishers and Oxford University Press on Islam and Muslim communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Certainly, there is more left to discover about the nuances of this community’s narrative and how they fit into the global Muslim picture. Yet, the above works help provide a firm, and comprehensive, foundation for this further research.

Just 100 years ago the Latinx Muslim community in the U.S. scantly existed, if it was present at all. Today, Latinx Muslims have the opportunity to shape Islam and Muslim communities in the U.S., in Latin America, and across the globe with their particular accent on its theology, practice, and expansion and via the various media of global communication and contact between multiple cultures and communities. The above works showcase how this is already happening and why it matters.

From Panther Now, a publication from Florida International University:

Muslims have had a significant impact on Latin culture, politics, and society, with 3,000 Spanish words having historical connections to Arabic, such as the words “pantalones” (pants) and “arroz” (rice). Their influence, however, has been unnoticed because of the lack of conversation around the topic, according to a professor.

Ken Chitwood is a [religion scholar] at the University of Florida. For the past six years he’s been studying Islam in the Americas and other subjects. But like many people, there was a time he was unaware of Islam’s influence in the west, he said.

Chitwood was writing a weekly report during a mosque visit when he met a man dressed in a tunic who told him of how he converted to Islam in New York, he said. It was then that Chitwood decided to research conversion stories, and after researching 135 conversion stories, he soon noticed a pattern: they had connections to Latin America.

He knew there was a large amount of research done to show Islam’s ties to Latin America, but people weren’t paying attention to it. When he taught a course on the subject years later at the University of Florida, students found it difficult to research. There were plenty of documents and statistics, but it was hard to piece together an “overall narrative.”

Through the event “Islam in Latin America,” which [was] held at [Florida International] University on Tuesday, Nov. 7, Chitwood [spoke] about Islam’s heavy presence in both Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Islam and Muslim communities’ influence in the past and present.

For Juan, Ramadan is a balancing act. On the one hand is his religious faith and practice. On the other is his land, his culture, his home – Puerto Rico.

Although he weaves these two elements of his identity together in many ways, during Ramadan the borderline between them becomes palpable. For the 3,500 to 5,000 Puerto Rican Muslims like Juan, the holy month of fasting brings to the surface the tensions they feel in their daily life as minorities – Muslims among their Puerto Rican family and Puerto Ricans in the Muslim community.

This is the question I often get confronted with when I tell people what I study.

Yes, I study Islam and Muslim communities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latinx U.S. Yes, that is a valid field of study. Yes, it has a history you would be surprised about. Yes, the numbers are not as large as other places in the world, but they are higher than you think. Yes, the influence of Muslims in the American hemisphere is lengthy and significant. Let me tell you more...

The essay not only introduces readers to the topic itself, but outlines its main themes and suggests some ways that scholars could inject their energy and efforts to advance this unfolding field of study. These theoretical considerations suggest that more work could be done in expanding the field in its engagement with prevalent theories in the field of global Islamic studies and those that treat the Americas as a geography of dynamic hemispheric engagement and encounter.

Essentially, the paper argues that there is still a necessity to explore the tensions, interactions, frictions, and collaborations across and at the boundaries between the global umma (community) and the American assabiya (local social solidarities), between the global and the local, and between immigrant communities and the growing number of regional converts.

Finally, I also make some suggestions about some practical considerations that may prove beneficial to the field’s advancement.

You step into a place like Centro Islámico, and you don’t feel marginalized. You’re able to be Latino and Muslim at the same time. Your identity is whole.

These are some of the words I shared with Houstonia magazine writer Adam Doster. Having lived in Houston for four years, studied alongside Latinx Muslims in my time there, and continuing as a scholar interested in how Muslim communities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latinx U.S. thrive, adapt, and grow I was honored to contribute to Adam's story.

For more on how these Latinx Muslims have made Houston their home and to read some of my commentary, click the link below.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and interact with the local evangelical Lutheran community. During my time there, and in subsequent interviews and conversations, I talked to them about Somalis, al-Shabaab, and their perspective on Christian-Muslim relations.

Long considered – perhaps naïvely – a relative oasis of Christian–Muslim calm, Kenya is seeing increased tension and conflict, mainly exacerbated by al-Shabaab militants, Kenyan military and Christian mobs. Concomitantly, the media and popular sentiment often vilify Somalis. This goes back to government agitprop during the ‘Shifta War’ of the 1960s. Among evangelical Christians, however, attitudes toward Somalis can prove more ambivalent. Drawing on interviews conducted with both Kenyan evangelical Christians and Somali Muslims, this article seeks to examine the theological shift among Kenyan evangelicals wherein they have re-cast Somalis as Samaritans and in doing so have made their primary approach to this conflict one of evangelization, not open hostility. This shift is due to a confluence of factors including community context, economic pragmatism and religious motivations, and the focus on evangelism does not necessarily preclude peace-building. What this article aims to present is a glimpse into the outlook of Kenyan evangelicals toward Somalis, particular Somali Muslims, and discuss these attitudes in the nexus of factors mentioned above. The article will reveal how, by re-casting the Somali ‘villain’ as Samaritan, some Kenyan evangelicals maintain boundaries and foster new identities in East Africa for the sake of a longed-for peace.

Springer Major Reference Works is producing a new, and first of its kind, Encyclopaedia of Latin American Religions. This encyclopedia provides an overview of the main religions of Latin America and the Caribbean, both its centralized transnational expressions and its local variants and schisms. This includes both Islam and Judaism in Latin America and the Caribbean.

We are looking for proposals for entries in the encyclopedia on the topics Judaism and Islam in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Those who wish to submit an entry can either a) propose their own topics or b) choose from the list of already proposed entries below.

Please contact Ken Chitwood at kchitwood@ufl.edu to submit your ideas, sign-up for a topic, or for further inquiries. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2017.

Why does Islam matter in the Americas? When did it arrive here? What values, practices, traditions, & tensions exist within its histories & social dynamics in the West? How can we study Muslim communities in this hemisphere?

In Spring 2017 I will offer a course called, "Islam in the Americas" (REL 4393/LAS 4935) with the UF Religion Department and in association with the UF Center for Latin American Studies. The lecture period will be every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:35-10:25am (coffee is encouraged. Donuts are accepted as bribes...just kidding...kind of).

This course will place Latin America, the Caribbean, & North America within a broader Islamic framework & locate Muslims of various backgrounds & experiences within the hemisphere from the 1500s to today, from Cape Columbia, Canada to Catamarca, Argentina, & many periods & places in between.

The semester will be divided into four main parts: 1) studying global Islam; 2) theoretical themes in the study of religion in the Americas; 3) the history of Islam in the Americas; and 4) country/region specific cartographies of contemporary American Muslim populations.

n attempting to locate, and explore, Islam in the Americas students will first have to apprehend a bit of what it is to study "global Islam." In this introductory part of the course we will spend some time discussing what "Islam" is, what its main texts, traditions, and shared vocabulary are, and how studying Islam globally often means studying Muslim communities locally, but being sure to set them within macro-contexts at the regional, hemispheric, or global levels as well.

Studying Islam in the Americas will also require a theoretical foundation. This second part of our course will cover the heritage and contact of multiple cultures in the Americas -- both across the hemisphere and the Atlantic ocean. In order to do so, we will take a look at the heritage of Europe (specifically al-Andalus), North and West Africa, and other transnational ties via politics, economics, ideologies, technology, and more.

With these foundational aspects in place we will then dive into the study of the history of Islam in the Americas, the third section of course. Looking back to pre-colonial contact with Europe, we will navigate the "deeper roots" of Islam in the Americas that are largely ignored in historical overviews before delving into the "forbidden" and forced passages of Muslims across the Atlantic as conquistadors, slaves, and monsters in the Western imagination. Once here in the hemisphere we will see how Islam took part in, shaped, and was molded by its American context even as Muslims adapted to, resisted, and surrendered to the broader Euro-American worldview and its attendant lifeways.

In the final part of the course we will take a closer look at specific countries and regions ranging from North America to Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically we will consider constituencies in Brazil, Mexico, Suriname, Trinidad, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the U.S., and Canada.

Over the course of the semester there will be ample opportunity for students to read and respond, discuss and deliberate the topics via various assignments. However, a semester capstone project, which will be worked on, edited, and completed throughout the course of the spring, will be presented via a final paper and presentation. These projects can take up any number of thematic, chronological, demographic, or geographic topics.

It is my hope that this course will help place Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America within a broader Islamic framework and locate Muslims of various genealogies within the hemisphere over the longue durée. urthermore, this course will aim to focus on local values, practices, traditions, and tensions placing these within larger questions about what kinds of histories, social dynamics, and meaning production make Islam significant, or how its significance is denied, in a part of the world that hasn’t recognized its history here or its contemporary configurations or impact.

If you have any questions, comments, or want to know more about the texts, assignments, or expectations for the course, please do not hesitate to contact me.

A paradox lies at the heart of the contemporary study of global Islam.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent “war on terror,” which has recapitulated the Huntingtonian clash of civilizations thesis and its emphasis on the false dichotomy between “Islam” and “the West" there has concomitantly been an increase in the academic attention afforded to the study of Islam.

Although the number of Islamic studies degrees conferred has more than doubled in the past decade, Islamic studies has also been remained largely confined to the regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, leaving Muslim communities in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas to the wayside. In a word, even with the rise of the study of global Islam, its scope has failed to fully incorporate other geographies and the study of Islam beyond the Middle East is still underrepresented. Thus, there is still a pertinent need to globalize the study of “global Islam.”

For over a thousand years, Islam has been integral to what is known as "Western civilization." Even so, it is too often assumed assumed that Islam is a foreign element and Muslims in the West are doomed to be out of place and in perpetual conflict. The need for accurate, reliable scholarship on this topic is terribly urgent.

Thus, this has become the focus of my academic research on Islam in the Americas. I am convinced that understanding currents in global Islam -- peaceful and violent, widespread and vernacular, popular and institutional -- must be understood from a truly global perspective, while at the same time being embedded in local histories, tensions, movement, and exchanges. Exploring American Islam -- from Canada to the Caribbean, from Phoenix, Arizona to Patagonia, Argentina -- is a prime manner in which to do so.

Recently I published a book chapter and a peer-reviewed journal article to that effect. The first is titled, "Exploring Islam in the Americas from Demographic and Ethnographic Perspectives." This chapter in Brill's Yearbook of International Religious Demography: 2016discusses some population data concerning Muslims in the Americas and offers pathways for further research based on these statistics. These demographics invite a more thorough study of under-appreciated religious populations that present ample opportunities for research in cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and specifically apropos to the ethnographic study of religion.

The latter work was recently published in the Waikato Islamic Studies Review Vol. 2, No. 2 out of New Zealand. The aim of this paper is to intermesh prevalent theories about globalization with the study of Islam, both historically and contemporaneously. It is, effectively, an attempt to globalize the study of Islam in the Americas and offer several brief examples of avenues to approach this study in the hope to not only feature existent work in the field, but offer further areas for consideration and future research. It covers Islam in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Latina/o U.S.A., and in the "digital borderlands" of Latina/o Muslim specific Facebook pages.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about American Islam's history, contemporary manifestations, and linkages to global Islamic dynamics. Also, for those of you wondering...I am still in my "comp cave." My exams last from mid-October until mid-December. I look forward to returning to the world of writing, analysis, and news commentary in January 2017!

On BBC's Sherlock the titular character retreats into his "mind palace" -- a repository of memory and crucial bits of information -- in order to solve some of the more challenging mysteries he is facing and cannot seem to overcome through his prowess in the powers of deduction. In Sherlock's "mind palace" there are halls and doors in, and behind, which lay the keys to unlocking the most difficult of enigmas. It's pretty flippin' cool...not to mention handy.

I tell you this because in late October and November 2016 I will be taking what are known as "comprehensive examinations," "qualifying examinations," or "comps." I will need to construct my own version of a "mind palace" to pass them.

In the University of Florida Religion graduate program qualifying examinations form a bridge between course work and dissertation research. They are meant to assess the student’s familiarity with the essential works, authors, issues, methods, and theories that have defined their respective fields of study. Further, students must demonstrate their capacity to think “on their feet,” being able to synthesize critically -- and in a limited time span -- the extant literature and take an informed position vis-à-vis it. Each exam is five hours long and under normal circumstances the exams are administered one-per-week over a period of four weeks.

To say the least, these are kind of a big deal. In the months leading up to the "comps" graduate students are expected to immerse themselves in their readings and be prepared to cite, critique, and call upon these readings as they sit their exams.

And so I decided that if Sherlock has a "mind palace" then I should have a "comp cave." Or, perhaps, my very own "comp cathedral."

Essentially, the aim is to first retreat into my "comp cave" to properly prepare for the exams in the Fall. Thus, as I get into the "thick" of my book/article list I am going to step away from life as usual and instead pursue an intensive season of reading and reflection. This means I will not be blogging, publishing, or speaking from now until after my exams.

Indeed, other than a few commitments to speaking (see my Public Speaking page for more info) and an editorial project for an upcoming encyclopedia on religion in Latin America that I've already committed to, I will not be doing any other public work as a scholar until January 2017.

And so, I enter into my "comp cave" to get these readings done. The hope is that by October I will have transformed my cave into a vaulted and mentally visualized cathedral where I can readily locate a set of theories, memories, and critical reflections on these readings and themes. This will be my "comp cathedral," from whence I will rely on the historically grounded "method of loci" -- also known as memory theater, the art of memory, the memory palace, or, in the world of Sherlock, the mind palace -- to pass my comprehensive exams and enter into the next phase of my doctoral work on religion.

When I get to the other side, I'll be sure to let you know how it all went. It is also my intention to take what I've learned and to go on reporting and commenting on religion and culture news and happenings via my blogging, op-eds, and analysis pieces for public, popular, and academic publications. In the end, this work will be better because of my time in the "comp cave." And honestly, I'm looking forward to it.

With that folks, I'm off into my cave. I will see you in January 2017.

Perusing the Facebook group “United in Islam in South Africa” one finds a variety of posts that might catch one’s attention. From agriculturally informed exhortations, to charity, to the posting of events in Tshwane/Pretoria, to quotes of Ibn Taymiyyah and other sources the posts on the page are wide in range, source, and influence—some yielding likes and comments, others sitting silent on the page.

One particularly popular post called for du’a (non-obligatory prayer) to be made for rain in the Gauteng province including Johannesburg. On several days a woman began by saying “Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem” (“in the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful”) expressing shukr (thanks) and calling for rakaats (units of prayer) in grateful response. The other most popular post on the page shows Syrian refugees seeking asylum in Europe.

Here, on Facebook, in the digital borderlands, the global and local are meeting as South African Muslims interact with Muslims from across the globe and share media, meditations, and methods of piety online with “likes” and “comments” the affirmations in place of vocal takbirs (informal expressions of faith with the acclamation, “Allahu akbar” or “God is great”). The petitions and posts on the page are predicated by both global concerns and local conditions. As such, this short vignette and case can serve well as a piquing entrée into the digital and electronic media world, which is part of a large religious, social, economic, and political patchwork across Africa.

As intimated by the case above Africa’s religious media scene is rapidly evolving and constantly engaging. The book New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa seeks to cast a critical eye on this area of study and “focus on the diverse religious transformations being generated by the explosion of media technologies—both old and new—across Africa” (p. 5). It is the contention of this review that this text is a helpful primer on the historical and contemporary ways that media—old and new, print and digital—have shaped, are shaped by, and continue to shape religion in Africa.

They are among the fastest growing demographics of growth in global Islam -- particularly in the U.S.

Ryan Schuessler, reporting from Houston, recently covered a Cinco de Mayo festival held at the Islam in Spanish mosque in the Bayou City. I was honored to be interviewed for the piece to provide my contextual knowledge and perspective. Here's a sampling below...or read the FULL ARTICLE HERE.

“They’ve been able to really define very significant and strong Latino and Muslim identities, and to merge the two together,” said Ken Chitwood, a PhD student at the University of Florida who studies and writes about the growing Latino Muslim community. “And they are very intentional about that.”

In his research, Chitwood has found that most Latino Muslims are converts from Christianity. Central and South American countries are heavily rooted in the Roman Catholic church.

“Typically, there is some sort of spiritual wandering that occurs,” Chitwood said. “There is some type of spiritual dissatisfaction with their present religious outlook, be that Catholic or Protestant or whatever. And then they go looking.”

Louis L'Amour -- the American novelist -- once said, "Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value."

It is one thing for me to share my perspective and knowledge (whatever that is), but personally -- as an educator -- my true joy comes from when I see students get actively engaged with the topic. Discussing. Dissecting. Debating. Entering into the discourse on religion, culture, & the interaction between the two.

Right now I am teaching a course on "Religion & the News." The first assignment asked, "Why religion news?" Why is religion newswriting, commentary, and analysis important? Why is religious studies a valuable area of research and reflection? One of my students took that assignment and used it as a catalyst to create her own blog. In the spirit of circulating knowledge and encouraging a public discussion of religion in the news, I want to share it with you.

Here is an excerpt from her first post:

If a journalist was to walk around Times Square and ask random street-goers their personal beliefs on the subject of religion, six-in-ten would say that it is important to them (Connolly); however, if the same journalist were to also give these interviewees a simple religion quiz asking basic questions on widely known religions such as, “what are the four Gospels?” or “name a sacred text of Hinduism,” a large majority of them would fail….Why would sixty percent of Americans state that religion is paramount when they know hardly anything about it?

Today is the day! For the next 15 weeks over 30 students and I will explore the ins-and-outs of religion reporting and how to analyze, critique, and comment on religion news.

Such a class, and conversation, is vitally important in this present moment. It is impossible to think about religion without noticing the news. It is impossible to be a journalist without understanding something about religion. Religion is at the center of multiple headlines and news stories the world over. Whether it is politics, personal issues or the palpable effects of religious extremism in the public sphere, religion plays a significant role in the world. To ignore this fact is to do so at our peril. How do we make sense of these stories? How do we critique the coverage or question the approach of the journalists? How could we play an active part in producing and analyzing such news?

These questions will help participants cover the importance of religion reporting in an age of simultaneous religious pluralism and illiteracy and discuss news as a primary portal for knowledge about religion. It aims to give students an opportunity to give voice to why they report on religion, from a personal perspective and familiarize students with the multiple representations and expressions of religion, discussing how we can define religion in a pluralistic age.

Students will also get the chance to know what resources, methods and theories are available for religion newswriting and then to write and publish blogs, articles and analysis pieces for public consumption. This is not a passive class with a theoretical end, but an active class with practical and real-time applications and assignments.

The hope is that students will find value in this course as we attempt to appreciate religious diversity and seek to develop objective religious observation and reporting. All the while, we will not deny real religious differences, nuances in coverage and the need to appreciate local stories in dynamic dialectic with global trends. This will help journalists, or analysts, avoid dogmatism and instead promote reports on the mutually shared human quest to understand the transcendent, share it with the people of the world and do so from a perspective of generous curiosity, humble awe, and equitable scrutiny.

I invite you to take a look at the SYLLABUS for the course and to stay tuned as students post religion news content, analysis, and commentary on our course website, which I will link to on this blog. If you have any questions, comments, or want to "audit" the course let me know!

When I tell people that I study global Islam the reaction usually goes something like this:

“Ohhhhhhhh, that’s interesting.”

Two or three beats pass…wait for it, then the shoe drops: “You know, I actually have a question for you. I’ve always wondered [INSERT QUESTION, CONUNDRUM, OR NEWS SOUNDBITE HERE].”

Islam is, unfortunately, a very hot topic of conversation. Sometimes, I wish I studied the most boring, obscure, and esoteric religious topic so that when I told people what I study they would say, “how interesting,” not really mean it, and then casually change the topic of conversation. But that’s just not the case. The questions keep coming. The headlines continue to splash across our screens. My area of study remains relevant.

In truth, I relish the opportunity to talk to people about religion — especially global Islam. I learn much from my studies with Muslims and non-Muslims alike and enjoy sharing that with others via blogs, news pieces, and in the classroom. In that spirit, this semester I was honored to work alongside the legendary Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons teaching the UF Religion Department’s Intro. to Islam course.

At the end of the class I asked all of the students to reflect on three questions: 1) what is the single most insightful thing you learned this semester? 2) What is one thing you would tell someone who has yet to take this class? 3) What is one question you still have?

What follows is a break-down of the TOP THREE things that students learned and would share with others outside the class (there was significant overlap) and the TOP THREE questions they still had. These reflections help us understand what is most relevant to the discussion of Islam that is going on in politics, social circles, and places of worship and devotional practice across the world. Furthermore, they act as a catalyst for further conversations and questions to be answered — both here and in those confabs you and I might have sometime when I tell you that yes, indeed, I study global Islam.

“Oh, that’s interesting” you say? Let’s talk…

Top Three Takeaways:

1) Islam is a big, diverse, unique, and complex global religion

You can say that again. Multiple students reflected on how their image of Islam coming into the class was overly simplistic. However, as they left the class students mused that they learned “about the diversity of the umma — the global Muslim community” and just how “deep, beautiful, and informative Islam is.” That student further said, “there are just too many specifics to list, this class has really opened my eyes.” Finally, striking the same chord, another student shared, “the complexity and breadth of Islam is something I had not recognized before.”

Check out this super-cool class of Intro. to Islam students...what a shame they had that dorky-looking TA up front.

As Shahab Ahmed intimated in What is Islam? the main challenge in interpreting Islam is coming to terms with the considerable diversity of beliefs, practices, and postures of global Islam while simultaneously appreciating that there are shared principles which act as a cri de coeur for Muslims across the world.

The uncomfortable truth is that essentialized conceptualizations that say "Islam = violence" or "Islam = peace" are insensitive to the alterations and negotiations that characterizes lived Islam in interaction with myriad Muslim constituencies and non-Muslim actors throughout the world.

An introductory class presents students with this complexity and invites them to capture not necessarily what Islam is or is not, but the many different ways that Muslims live, move, and believe in this world while learning to critically think about what this complexity means in the world we live in.

2) The basics are important

Even so, students also reflected that there is a unity that runs through the story of Islam since its inception in the 7th-century. Students appreciated learning more about Muhammad — the first Muslim and the living Qur’an, its history, the basics of the Qur’an and the Sunna — the traditions of the prophet, and foundations of Muslim theology, philosophy, and practice.

As students could readily appreciate this course could only whet their appetites to learn more. As one student shared, “I learned so much only to realize I still know so little. This can’t be the end of my exploration.” Amen.

3) Islam is not necessarily what you see/hear in the news or on social media

Overwhelmingly, students came away surprised about how the image of Islam presented in the public and in popular discourse is a distorted and inaccurate one. One student said, “I would invite people to learn more about Islam even if they think they know all about it from the news. The truth is — they don’t.” Some students made it personal and shared, “I didn’t know anything about this religion before I started” but “if you’re non-Muslim take this class to undue the popular ideas that are out there and wrong,” and “if you’re Muslim take it see how non-Muslims view your religion.” One student was unequivocal about this point and said, “don’t believe the media. The representations of Islam on social media are not accurate. Do your own research, take a class like this, and learn about Islam for yourself.”

As a member of “the media” and an active agent on sites such as Facebook and Twitter I take comments like these personally. While I am invariably impressed with the quality, and creative, content that religion newswriters are able to produce on complex topics, there are occasionally weak stories, missed opportunities or the need for more nuance or critical insight — especially when it comes to Islam and specifically when it comes to broadcast news.

My students tend to agree. I think we should listen. They spend a lot of time on those new-fangled-smart-phone-thingies and the way Islam is constructed, represented, and controlled via news and social media has significant implications for them Classes can help, but they cannot undo all the injurious images of Islam shared across media platforms.

Top Three Questions Lingering:

Our main text for the class. While it certainly has its weaknesses, it provided a solid foundation for discussion along with other resources and primary documents.

With everything students learned, questions still lingered. The top three were: 1) Where, and how, does ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fit in? 2) Is global Islam still growing? If so, is it trending toward “fundamentalism” or “progressivism?” 3) What can we do to end Islamophobia?

Behind each of these questions are real concerns. While students in this class felt they understood more about the religion as a whole they were still uncomfortable with how that matches up with the actions of Muslims who are part of ISIS, whether or not this is the future of the faith, and how others are going to treat Muslims based on popular misperceptions and media-fed monstrosities.

What next?

As I told them at the end of the class, they are now “scholars of Islam.” Although there is much more to learn and questions needing continual conversation (hey, you can’t cover everything in one semester and you need to get a basic hold of the foundations before you can tackle more complex issues), these students now know more than at least 70% of the population…if not much more.

Thus, the conversation must continue. We need to maintain the relevant discussion between people of multiple perspectives, faiths, and practices — Muslim and non-Muslim, in our local communities and across the globe.

I was personally awe-struck by the sheer caliber of the students who took this class this semester. Their passion for the topic, the candor of their questions, and the effort they put into learning the material and discussing difficult topics was humbling. I can only hope that they are a vanguard for these exchanges. I also sincerely hope their learning does not stop there and they become ambassadors for peacemaking and religious literacy in a world all to often torn apart by identity politics (“us” vs. “them” mentalities) and flat-out ignorance.

THATCamp stands for The Humanities And Technology Camp and the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting (professional and academic organizations in the study of religious studies and biblical literature, respectively) played host to the user-generated unconference for religious and biblical studies academics to set the agenda for discussion and work in the area of digital humanities — an area of research and teaching at the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities.

Overall, the quality of the content was impressive and the event created an interdisciplinary space where scholars from multiple disciplines and perspectives could share in ways that few other venues afford. Cheers to the organizers for putting on such a wonderful unconference and helping us all play a part in advancing the field!

From my perspective, the key conversation from the day was whether, and if so how, to count digital scholarship toward hiring, promoting, and offering tenure in the academic world.

Counting Digital Scholarship Toward Academic Advancement?

While the recognition of the value of digital scholarship is increasing and there is an awareness that the context of humanities research is changing quickly and deeply due to advances in digital technology there are no broadly agreed upon or applied standards for the professional evaluation of digital scholarship.

Certainly, the humanities have seen a spike in digitally innovative practices in the last decade with various scholars doing valuable work in the realm of digital humanities. However, the lack of formal evaluation procedures and attendant academic incentives (you know, like jobs, promotions, and the elusive “beast of tenure”), in the words of the American Historical Association (AHA), “discourages scholars at all levels from engaging with the new capacities. It also prevents the profession, and the departments in which it is grounded, from creatively confronting ways in which […] knowledge increasingly will be created and communicated.”

The THATCamp AAR/SBL conversation floated from the discussion of digital publishing and material/visual culture in existing dissertations and works to the evaluation of digital scholarship in publications such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. For me, there were two important points raised, from opposite ends, that need serious consideration as this discussion, hopefully, moves forward:

1) Upholding academic standards. Although it might go without saying, it is vital that we do not “dumb down” the standards to accept, evaluate, and reward digital scholarship in hiring, promoting, and providing tenure for humanities scholars. Digital humanities work must also be given the level of respect that traditional academic scholarship receives and thus needs comparable,a= and stringent, evaluative measures.

Devices welcome at THATCamp AAR/SBL 2015! (PHOTO: THATCamp AAR/SBL)

This means that departments and institutions that choose to evaluate digital humanities projects (from blogs to digital research designs) should subject them to serious academic review and not base assessment on popularity. Often, such appraisals are camouflaged under markers of “impact” in the public sphere.

While I agree that impact is important judging projects based principally on their reach is akin to judging a scholar on whether or not their book sold a certain number of copies. The popularity of a publication or project is not directly indicative of the seriousness, or even the value, of research and we cannot let it guide our evaluation of digital humanities scholarship.

With that said, it should be part of the conversation, because from my view one of the principal benefits of much digital humanist’s work is its broad audience and public value.

2) Defending the democratic digital. Related to the prospect of digital humanities scholarship having an impact in the public and popular spheres, it is also paramount that in judging digital humanities work we should not “copy/paste” the same standards for “traditional” academic scholarship (journal articles, books, etc.). This is vital for two reasons.

First, the scholarship is different. Because digital humanists are sometimes dealing with different media, audiences, and outcomes it is not appropriate to evaluate their work according to the standards for a different set of means, market, or end product. Furthermore, digital humanities work is often more collaborative and interdisciplinary and many P&T committees already struggle with considering such efforts in traditional realms of scholarship.

Second, one of my favorite aspects of my digital humanities work is the degree of play it involves and the democracy of the conversation. Through digital humanities work (blogging, social media, ARCs, digital-based ethnography, etc.) I am able to work in different streams and produce work for variant audiences than I normally would in my traditional academic research. It is liberating to engage the public and have more “fun” in doing work that is not required by my principal investigations. It is already intimidating enough to know that my tweets could end my career when they are not being evaluated as part of my “serious scholarship.” What would happen if they were fair game? That could be both blessing and curse.

For this reason, I would want to see three categories of work and evaluation moving forward: scholarship that is digitally-based and contributes to public discourse without evaluation, scholarship that is digitally-based and affords some form of academic legitimization, and scholarship that is more “traditional” and is appraised accordingly.

Conclusion

As can be deduced from the above, the conversation surrounding the production, and evaluation, of digital scholarship in consideration of academic advancement is still in its early days. Nonetheless, parsing through how to value and evaluate digital humanities research is both a fascinating and increasingly necessary, conversation with attendant cautions and incitements.

The critical element is that your institution and/or department initiate the discussion. You might consider using this blog or the guidelines provided by the AHA as you do so. No matter what, it is vital that more programs and academics start the dialogue, because digital scholarship continues to emerge as a viable and valuable field of research in the humanities as the quality and quantity of presentations at THATCamp AAR/SBL testifies.

Everything is bigger in Texas, so they say. The food, the football, and even the faith-communities that make up Texan lives and localities are larger than life. In Houston — the state’s largest city — religion is blooming, booming, and burgeoning in a stunning array of diversity. From Caucasian Khalsa converts to Sikhism to Coptic Christians, Latina/o Muslims, and “God Bless America” Southern Baptists, Houston has it all.

It is also home to Lakewood Church — America’s largest megachurch. Home to 43,500 worshippers every Sunday, Lakewood is led by Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen. A non-denominational and charismatic Christian church the congregation offers English and Spanish services every weekend in the Compaq Center, the former home of basketball team the Houston Rockets.

Osteen also comes to American homes via television broadcasts, books, and speaking tours in local stadiums. Through his megachurch pastoral work and mega-personality Osteen has courted both celebrity and controversy.

In Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity Phillip Luke Sinitiere -- Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University -- courses the history, development, and manifestation of Lakewood's strengths and storm of debate surrounding it and placing its narrative firmly within the story of American Christianity in general. I had the opportunity to speak with him about the book, his research, and Lakewood's "salvation with a smile."

What made you want to research Joel Osteen, his church, his family, and his context?

It stems first from my interest in American religious history, cultivated initially by the late Terry Bilhartz (1950-2014) when I was an undergraduate history major at Sam Houston State University. I first became interested in Joel Osteen as a scholarly subject in 2005, much of it through the work of Andrew Chesnut on religious economy, when I was in graduate school at the University of Houston. I realized, just as Lakewood Church was moving into the Compaq Center in July that year, that a national story was brewing in my hometown, and I didn’t have to travel far to do research! Although I found archival materials all across the United States, early on I recognized that the history of my hometown, Houston, might have something significant to say in relation to Osteen’s story.

How does this present research fit into your previous work?

The final sentence in the chapter on Joel Osteen in my first book Holy Mavericks reads, “While scholars of American religion continue to debate the significance and influence of popular pastors and ministers, one thing is certain: Joel Osteen will offer salvation and a smile to anyone who shows up, tunes in, or logs onto Lakewood Church.” So, in many ways the present book builds on and extends earlier research on neopenteostalism, the prosperity gospel, and contemporary American religion.

What was your personal experience with Lakewood?

I tend to think of my “personal experience” with Lakewood in terms of the people I met, and how I processed my experiences and framed my research in light of scholarship on American religion.

There’s no doubt that “Joel Osteen” is a historical and cultural construction and “Lakewood” is an institution as much as it is an idea that is part of America’s religious landscape—ideas I attempt to unpack in the book—but I spent my time researching Joel Osteen and Lakewood not in pursuit of just understanding the congregation’s leaders, but also people who constitute the congregation itself. Overall, the time I spent at Lakewood introduced me to some interesting, fascinating, and sincere people who were willing to share some of their time, resources, and their stories with me. (More on that below).

In addition, my own internal dialogue and thinking about my fieldwork was very much in conversation the work of scholars such as Kate Bowler, Robert Orsi, Susan Harding, Manuel Vasquez, T.L. Luhrmann, James Bielo, Gerardo Marti, and so many more.

I’d also respond to your question this way: I began attending church services and different Sunday school classes as a participant observer starting in the fall of 2005, and continued on and off until early 2014. I also attended two Evening of Hope events in Texas during the course of research, so I could experience a kind of portable Lakewood. While I never considered myself a church member in any sense, I typically introduced myself as a researcher and scholar, explained why/how I got interested in the topic of Lakewood and Joel Osteen, and thus tried to understand and grasp the Lakewood “experience” in my participation in and observation of congregational activities. This sustained participation and my analysis of it in the book, I hope, provides a robust picture of what Lakewood was/is outside of the telecasts or podcasts. This sustained presence at Lakewood also proved instrumental in forging relationships and friendships with members and attendees, without whom I could not have finished the book. While not everyone spoke on the record, and while not everyone granted my request for an interview or conversation, members and attendees who did (most of whom are pseudonymous in the book) offered interesting and fascinating insight into congregational life at Lakewood Church. And several people I interviewed also loaned me or gave me printed materials, photographs, and/or old VHS videos and cassette tapes of John Osteen sermons. So in many ways I am in great debt to certain Lakewood members and attendees who chose to share their thoughts, materials, and life stories with me.

Did you get a chance to visit the bookstore? On one occasion I did and came across a wide variety of books that aren’t “on message” with Joel Osteen ministries. How do you think the eclecticism of the bookstore reflects on Lakewood Church and Osteen?

In many ways, I’d say the bookstore fits like a glove with the space that is Lakewood Church, as well as with the general contours of the smiling preacher. What I mean is this: the bookstore is professionally done in the sense that it is like other chain Christian bookstores such as Mardel or Lifeway. One finds the latest Christian bestsellers (some of which are Joel’s books!) in both fiction and nonfiction, along with Christian t-shirts, necklaces, Cross décor, music, study Bibles, etc., plus a substantial section of Spanish language items. Of course, the sheer business of the place, and dynamics of economic exchange also prompt thinking about the entanglements of the prosperity gospel, religion, and class. Yes, the bookstore disseminates and provides materials for religious education and spiritual enlightenment while it also traffics in the supply and demand chains of capitalism. The bookstore is also large and expansive, which works as a nice metaphor for Lakewood and Osteen’s place in America’s religious landscape. It is hard not to miss, regardless of your opinion about Osteen or Lakewood. Finally, the array of materials—you allude to books by evangelical writers such as John Piper, John MacArthur, or even Albert Mohler that sit alongside titles by the novelist Frank Peretti, or prosperity teachers like Joyce Meyer, Joseph Prince, or T. D. Jakes—crosses denominational lines, transcends national borders, and is seemly inclusive of the wider boundaries of modern Christianity. It fits with Osteen’s expressly nondenominational outlook, a perspective adopted from his father John Osteen.

I found that Lakewood Church membership has seemingly high turnover with people finding Lakewood as a gateway, or a port of return, to Christianity. Comment on this…

I think you are absolutely correct on this point, Ken. Data are hard to find on Lakewood’s revolving doors, so to speak, although some of the Pew research on “religious switching” captures broader trends and may suggest ways to think about what this means longitudinally. I only have qualitative research to present on this question. In my interviews, individuals described going to Lakewood to find new inspiration—your “port of return” descriptor—most especially from the music, whether it was Cindy Cruse Ratcliff or Israel Houghton. One woman I interviewed, as I explain in “Teri’s Story” in chapter 7, had hit rock bottom in her life and attended Lakewood for a psychological and existential boost. But once her life stabilized, Teri said she longed for more rigorous teaching in sermons, so she ended up leaving Lakewood and settled at another Pentecostal, nondenominational church in Houston. As she communicated it to me, she wasn’t bitter or disgruntled as she left Lakewood, but in search of deeper religious knowledge. So, yes, I think your gateway or port of return metaphors work well to explain this in a qualitative sense. I hope someone is able to assess this reality quantitatively one day. That would make for a fascinating study.

You seek to situate Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church in a historical stream of neoPentecostalism. Why do you think this is important?

I think understanding Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church in light of neopentecostalism is crucial because it highlights the interconnected networks between several generations of neopentecostal and prosperity ministers and ministries. It also historicizes Osteen’s career from television producer to minister, which in turn contextualizes the providential narrative he has used to describe how he became Lakewood’s pastor. Finally, situating Osteen as a neopentecostal allows us to track one chapter of the prosperity gospel and articulate some of reasons why Pentecostalism and neopentecostalism remain popular expressions of Christianity today.

Placing Joel Osteen in the historical stream of neopentecostalism highlights how the message of a second chance or spiritual makeover—an opportunity to start over and remake something—is, we might say, quintessentially American. I’m not the first or only scholar to connect this idea in Pentecostalism to American culture. There is also something, it seems, culturally important in terms of why a message of second chances resonates in a therapeutic era. The historical moment of Joel’s ascendancy emblematized this message. Here I’m thinking of the rise in popularity in the 1990s and 2000s of reality TV shows that, ironically, scripted a second chance or makeover of some sort. Here I’ also thinking of Kathryn Lofton’s fascinating book on Oprah, who figures into the larger cultural significance of remaking oneself into something new.

Also, you place Joel Osteen in a place to benefit, in terms of ministry, from the crisis in evangelical leadership. Yet, many of his evangelical critics would place him on the outside of evangelicalism. What do you have to say to these critics?

I’m not so sure it is evangelicalism’s crisis in leadership—although examples surely abound—as much as it is evangelicalism’s philosophical framework. Building on Molly Worthen’s excellent book Apostles of Reason in the final chapter I point out the irony between Osteen and his critics, especially those part of the New Calvinist movement. A group of theologians and pastors focused on intellectualism and Reformed theology, New Calvinism’s philosophical orientation prizes divine sovereignty, predictability, order, and control. Ironically, Osteen’s message of positive thinking and positive confession is also highly predictable and exceptionally redundant. Let me put it further this way: Osteen’s New Calvinist skeptics, whose theology has prized God’s absolute orchestration of human affairs, by the very nature of their anxious criticism, have assigned Osteen a tremendous amount of material and historical agency. This seems to belie the New Calvinists’ convictions about God’s sovereignty. The utter predictability of Osteen’s message of God’s favor and goodness has exemplified the same predictability towards which the New Calvinists’ propositional theology has aspired. Using the same Bible, and engaging in similar acts of interpretation, Osteen has promised unfettered possibility while the messages of his critics have emphasized theological aspects of conformity and order. Both have promoted a certain kind of predictability. Philosophically, therefore, Osteen and his critics have seemed more alike than different. While both parties have rooted their messages in particular interpretations of the Bible, they have also deployed defenses of their positions from Christian scripture in reply to one another. In my reading of this larger story, this shared basis of conflict in not just an example of doctrinal infighting. It is an illustration of deeply embedded intellectual conflicts in the evangelical tradition out of which both Osteen and the New Calvinists have attempted to leverage the widest possible influence on American culture. It is fascinating history.

Houston is a diverse place in terms of religion and culture. What can people learn about Houston from reading this book about, arguably, its biggest religious “attraction?”

While Salvation with a Smile is about Houston’s largest religious attraction, I explain in chapter 4 that Lakewood is not the sum total of religion in Houston. Yes, the city is home to the nation’s largest megachurch—and one of the nation’s most ethnically and racially diverse congregations in the nation’s most racially and ethnically diverse metropolitan areas—but Houston is also home to numerous Roman Catholics and a Cardinal, His Eminence Daniel DiNardo. Yes, the city is home to several of the nation’s largest megachurches (e.g., Second Baptist Church, Woodlands Church, New Light Christian Center, Windsor Village United Methodist Church, etc.), but is also home to botanicas that have serviced Houstonians who practice religions such as Santería. Local traditions practiced by some of Houston’s Mexican immigrants have also shaped the religious lives of devotees to Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint. Then there’s the Catholic Charismatic Center, home to Pentecostal Catholics. One of the places to track some of these developments is the Houston Area Survey, conducted now for 3 decades out of Rice University’s Kinder Institute. Houston is an exciting and important place to study national and global religious trends—and not just because of Lakewood Church.

You emphasize how important Osteen Ministries’ grasp of new media trends is key to their success. What other religious currents seem to be doing similar work, Christian or otherwise?

Joel’s first career as a television producer and religious broadcaster oriented his outlook to present religious messages across new media platforms. As it happened, his emergence to public prominence that started around 2004 tracked simultaneously with the rise of new media/social media. This is one of the reasons why Joel Osteen became Joel Osteen. I’ll offer an example from Houston that readers may not be aware of: Fr. Cedric Pisegna. He’s a Passionist priest with a ministry called “Live with Passion!” that presents positive messages in the Joel Osteen vein. An advocate of the “New Evangelization,” Fr. Cedric’s teachings across social media and television have commonly encouraged the quest for joy, inspiration, happiness. Moreover, presentations with titles such as “Challenges Make Champions,” “The Power of Positivity,” and “You Are God’s Champion,” not only reflect the Roman Catholic Church’s outreach techniques in the New Evangelization, they also echo the promise of possibility that has been part of Houston’s cultural identity.

What do you think reactions to book will be like?

I hope Christians who pick up the book give it a thorough reading, regardless of whether they like or dislike Osteen. I didn’t write the book as someone interested in participating in any intramural debates amongst Christians, or even evangelicals or Pentecostals, but I do hope these constituencies read the book. In terms of feedback, on a recent radio program out of San Antonio called “The Source” produced by Texas Public Radio on which I discussed the book, the questions callers asked referenced the doctrines Osteen preaches, as well as the larger prosperity gospel movement. Both callers seemed very skeptical of Osteen. In the academy, I hope the book is a worthy contribution to the burgeoning and excellent scholarship already published on contemporary American Christianity, the prosperity gospel, and neopentecostalism. In terms of methodology, I hope scholars deem that I’ve somehow succeeded in sufficiently historicizing a contemporary subject, both through traditional historical archival research but also through ethnographic participant observation.

What future research do you have planned?

In addition to my work on evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, I’m also a scholar of African American studies. In this arena, I have several projects in the works on the political and intellectual work of W. E. B. Du Bois and I’m working on a short biography of the playwright, author, and essayist James Baldwin. In the field of American religion, I’m continuing my work on Lakewood’s history in several ways. Building on the first two chapters in Salvation with a Smile on John Osteen, I’m writing more on his role in the neopentecostal movement and the politics of religious leadership. Research Joel and religious programming got me interested more specifically in the cultural meaning of televangelism, so I’m actively researching the historical and cultural significance of recent televangelist scandals.

Biography: Phillip Luke Sinitiere is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. He is author or editor of several books, including Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace (NYU Press, 2009).